Fifteen Days at Jet Tern Marine

By: Ted Hannum

This was my third trip to the Jet Tern Marine factory at Dongguan. I had visited last December as my hull was still in the mold, to personally discuss my extensive list of specs with Voda Chuang, 5383’s first Project Engineer. My wife Angie and I visited again last May, after experiencing a wonderful ten-day tour of five major cities in China, to review progress and the specs. We were introduced to our new Project Engineer, Kerry Luo. Kerry has been great. Dedicated, detail-oriented and thorough with a delightful sense of humor, one could not ask for a better Project Engineer.

My intent for the third trip was to see 5383 in the test tank where one usually finds a fairly completed boat which should be ready to ship within perhaps, two weeks. I arrived on Tuesday, September 23rd with Larry Clark, who inspects Selenes for Brian Calvert, General Manager of Selene Seattle. What I did not know at the time was that my planned 6-day visit would be extended to over two weeks.

That first afternoon, Larry mentioned that it appeared that 5383 would be ready to ship in three weeks. A few days later, Mark Halverson, the exceptionally nice and knowledgeable Selene Dealer from Sydney, said he thought maybe two weeks. On the 26th, Howard told me she would be ready to truck to the port on October 4th, only seven working days away.

I was expecting a bit more in the way of completion when I arrived on Sept. 23rd.

Alarms sounding like one of our Kahlenberg horns went off inside my head. Just this past summer, Brian Calvert said to me as he was pealing me off the ceiling after I had been informed 5383’s completion date had been pushed back a month, “The last couple months when your boat is coming together is no time to rush manufacturing.” And now Howard was saying that two to three weeks of work was to be done in one! I told Howard that if my boat did not ship until November, I was fine with that, just don’t feel the need to hurry. He responded with, “We will not take any shortcuts.”

The kicker was that the factory was observing “Nation Day,” a five-day holiday beginning October 1 and ending the 5th. My boat was to be placed on the barge on the 6th, the day everyone was returning. Brad Pilz, in charge of Quality Control at Selene Seattle and who also happened to be there said that I shouldn’t worry, “Jet Tern is always pulling the rabbit out of the hat.” My immediate thought was, “It’s my million dollar rabbit and I have to pay for it before it leaves China!!”

As Mark Twain once said, “Go ahead and put all of your eggs in one basket, but then Watch That Basket!” Thus I changed my flight home from September 28 to October 7, as it was less expensive to stay than fly home and back to inspect the boat before it shipped. And save from unexpectedly being away from Angie for two weeks, staying at the Regal Palace Hotel is not a hardship.

Of the fifteen days that I was there, no less than 20 pairs of shoes (no one walks into the boat with shoes on) appeared on my cockpit deck during working hours. On some days, working hours were 24 hours a day. At one time, as weight simulations were being conducted in the test tank, 42 pairs of shoes were counted. And for the crew working on 5383, there was no holiday.

Some of the shoes that collected outside while the crew was on 5383. Once there were 42 pairs.

One of my concerns was that the crew, missing their holiday, might be sullen. Instead they were wonderful, working with a dedication that would not often be seen in the States or elsewhere in the world. My questions and concerns were always addressed in a timely fashion and in the most pleasant of manner.

Even while Kerry was away for the holidays, I was still able to communicate with two of the managers, Mr. Lee and Robert. We seldom understood each other’s English because of pronunciation difficulties, but they understood a bit of written English. By drawings, pantomime and writing out what we wanted to express, we got along fairly well. Of course, we were all happy to see Kerry and her English skills return.

Mr. Lee, center, and his crew work on the Air Conditioning system in the salon Oct. 2nd.

I believe the first rule of management is, “People don’t do so much what you expect as inspect.” That is what I was doing three or four times each day, putting my eyes on the different projects and asking questions. The rest of the time I was just trying to stay out of the way and let the workers work. Certainly I am not a boat builder and in no way qualify as any sort of expert. Usually it is apparent when things are going well and when they are not, however.

On October 2nd, with the schedule for trucking still set for the morning of the 4th, I made a list of items yet to be installed: there were 33 with an additional 20 installed but not yet tested. Most would not require much time: Fireboy, finish Hynautic steering, DC outlets, FB refrigerator, propeller, head floors, ice maker, horn, etc. But each would require some amount of time to install and test. And there were so many! And so little time!

It's now October 2, and still scheduled to go to the port on the 4th, with a few things yet to do.

As things turned out, the date for trucking was moved back two days providing more time and then, because of a storm at sea, the transport ship’s arrival date was moved back another two or three days. What I foresaw as a possible “Perfect Storm” of potential disasters turned out to be no storm at all. Yes, there probably were two to three weeks of work remaining on the boat when I first arrived but I was looking at it the wrong way. There were actually so many work hours remaining to be put into my boat. The Jet Tern crew simply put in those hours in a shorter overall time frame than usual. Saturday the 4th, JR came over from Zhu Hai to oversee things and Howard arrived on Sunday the 5th. Top management was there to ensure results, but actually, with the additional work days, the crew had things under control.

There is a saying that goes something like, “Those who like the law and sausage should never watch either being made.” This also might be said of watching one’s boat come together in such a short time. But the people at Jet Tern are descendants of those who built the Great Wall and invented gunpowder, the compass and movable type. If they are determined to do something, it will most likely happen. The proof of Jet Tern’s efforts will be seen here in Seattle as Brad Pilz and Todd Merry go through their quality control check lists after 5383 arrives.

Howard and JR, seen as 5383 is readied for trucking, arrived to oversee the completion.

As mentioned, Howard actually took over management of the “swing shift” on 5383 the last couple nights before she was trucked to the port on the 7th. Those of you who have worked with Howard Chen know he is an artist who loves Naval Architecture and is a driven businessman. But what sets him apart in my mind is his passion and enthusiasm for each of his Selenes. As my boat was being driven through Dongguan and I was following in a car behind it, heading for the ferry, there was CEO Howard Chen in his car, having driven out from the factory to intercept us and wave goodbye.

Workers ride the boat to lift power lines over while it is being trucked through Dongguan. Two blocks later Howard intercepted our caravan to wave good-bye.

 
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